Officials on alert as Krishna receives heavy inflows in Vijayawada

Vijayawada: The entire Krishna river course is facing flood threat due to heavy rains in the upstream areas in Karnataka and Maharashtra states. Nearly five lakh cusecs of water is being discharged from Prakasam Barrage into the sea.

All the reservoirs on Krishna River are receiving huge inflows from the upstream areas on Thursday. As per the flood situation, the inflows will continue for another two days. The Krishna district administration alerted people of low-lying areas and issued the first warning on the flood situation.

All the reservoirs in the Krishna basin are brimming with waters and witnessing floods in several areas in the present rainy season. The crest gates of all the reservoirs in the two Telugu-speaking states were lifted to release water to downstream areas.

According to the officials, nearly six lakh cusecs of water was released from the Pulichintala project on Thursday. All the upstream reservoirs including Almatti, Narayanapur, Jurala, Srisailam and Nagarjuna Sagar on Krishna basin were receiving heavy inflows nearly around five lakh cusecs of water.

As many as 10 crest gates of Srisailam were lifted releasing nearly five lakh cusecs and 18 gates of Nagarjuna Sagar were also opened to release nearly six lakh cusecs of water. Besides, all the 70 crest gates of Prakasam barrage were lifted and nearly five lakh cusecs were being released to the sea.

Krishna District Collector Md Imtiaz, who visited the flood-affected areas, informed all mandal-level officers to be alert in Krishna River due to surge in floodwater levels. He also reviewed the flood situation with the officials concerned. The officials led by the Collector visited the villages in Chandarlapadu and Kanchikacherla mandals and the people were alerted in view of the floods.